Leila Fadel
Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race.
Most recently, she was NPR's international correspondent based in Cairo and covered the wave of revolts in the Middle East and their aftermaths in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and beyond. Her stories brought us to the heart of a state-ordered massacre of pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Cairo in 2013 when police shot into crowds of people to clear them and killed between 1,000 and 2,000 people. She told us the tales of a coup in Egypt and what it is like for a country to go through a military overthrow of an elected government. She covered the fall of Mosul to ISIS in 2014 and documented the harrowing tales of the Yazidi women who were kidnapped and enslaved by the group. Her coverage also included stories of human smugglers in Egypt and the Syrian families desperate and willing to pay to risk their lives and cross a turbulent ocean for Europe.
She was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club for her coverage of the 2013 coup in Egypt and the toll it took on the country and Egyptian families. In 2017 she earned a Gracie award for the story of a single mother in Tunisia whose two eldest daughters were brainwashed and joined ISIS. The mother was fighting to make sure it didn't happen to her younger girls.
Before joining NPR, she covered the Middle East for The Washington Post as the Cairo Bureau Chief. Prior to her position as Cairo Bureau Chief for the Post, she covered the Iraq war for nearly five years with Knight Ridder, McClatchy Newspapers, and later the Washington Post. Her foreign coverage of the devastating human toll of the Iraq war earned her the George. R. Polk award in 2007. In 2016 she was the Council on Foreign Relations Edward R. Murrow fellow.
Leila Fadel is a Lebanese-American journalist who speaks conversational Arabic and was raised in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
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NPR's Leila Fadel talks with Washington Post's Afghanistan bureau chief Susannah George about Sunday's drone strike that killed a civilian family, including several children.
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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Dr. John Heaton, president and chief medical officer of LCMC Health, about the state of the system's hospitals post-Hurricane Ida.
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The Tokyo Olympics have officially ended. It was one of the strangest Olympics ever with most venues completely empty of fans during the pandemic.
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NPR's team in Tokyo put together our favorite moments of the Games, where participants showed their athleticism, sportsmanship, and what motivated them to compete. -
The pandemic has kept the venues at the Tokyo Olympics mostly empty of spectators. But team officials and athletes are allowed to attend and countries have found creative ways to amplify the cheering.
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Fields crashed last Friday during a semifinal heat at the Tokyo Olympics. He was rushed to a hospital's intensive care unit after he'd suffered a brain hemorrhage and broken rib. -
Outside of Tokyo's Olympic Stadium, a small mockup of the Olympic rings has stood for the past year. But it wasn't until last week that people began to line up to take pictures.
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Biles looked happy and relieved after dismounting the balance beam, smiling and waving at the crowd to roaring applause. She's still experiencing the "twisties" but has found ways to cope. -
Hammer thrower Gwen Berry is arguably the most outspoken Team USA athlete on social justice, posting a video accusing the International Olympic Committee of taking advantage of athletes to make money.
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The swimmers are now leaving Japan and the spotlight moves to the track and field events at Olympic Stadium. We'll walk you through the biggest things to watch for until the closing ceremony.
